Cane regions warned of smut threat
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Sugar research organisation the BSES expects all farms in three of Queensland's main cane growing regions will be affected by smut in the next year.
Dr Rob Magarey says infestations on farms in the Isis, Mackay and Hebert areas have rapidly increased in the past 12 months and says all the evidence points to an explosion in infections by the end of 2009.
He says it could be just two years before smut free areas like Innisfail are also affected.
"Not every crop infested, but every farm infested, so we're just wanting to draw farmers' attention to that, particularly in those three districts, just how fast the disease is actually spreading," he said.
